Sail
NAVIES IN THE CONTINENTAL POWER STRUGGLE
Peace was more common than war in the Baltic from 1721 to 1814 but there were also long periods of tensions and diplomatic and military preparations for war. Europe during this period was involved in almost constant negotiations about alliances and alignments between the various powers shifted frequently. Historians have tried to analyse this as various systems of power relations.…
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SHIPS – BEFORE THE VIKING AGE
A comparison of clinker-building and carvel-building styles. The origin of lap-strake ships The ships of the Vikings were built shell first on a backbone consisting of keel, stem and stern. The primary component was a shell of planks, fastened together with clench nails through their overlapping edges, hence the building…
Medieval War at Sea
Ships were at times used for direct warfare, not just for military transport. Naval warfare was most important in the Mediterranean; both Muslim and Christian kingdoms kept naval fleets of galleys. Northern Europe’s foray into naval warfare was delayed, although merchant vessels began carrying crossbows to defend against piracy. Piracy…
Attack on Basque Roads, (11–14 April 1809)
Battle of the Basque Roads The flamboyant, Captain Lord Cochrane, had rockets sent out onboard the transport Cleveland, to Basque Roads the same year, for his attempt on the French fleet anchored there. These rockets were fired from the rigging of the fire ships when sent in to attack the…
Nautilus – 1800 Part I
Robert Fulton, famous later for his success with steam-propelled vessels, built a submarine, the Nautilus, at Paris in 1800 that he successfully demonstrated to the French government. He hoped to sell the boat—copper skinned over iron frames and driven by a hand-cranked propeller while submerged—but was rebuffed and sold the…
Command at Sea
The dilemmas of command at sea at the strategic and operational levels evident during the Armada campaign were no less severe at the tactical level. Naval battles fought under sail before the mid-sixteenth century more closely resembled contemporary land engagements than they did the epic sea battles of the seventeenth…
Cortes’ March to Tenochtitlan I
Hernán Cortés Cortés burns his boats OCTOBER 23, 1518. After offering command of this latest enterprise to various individuals, Velazquez selects a 34-year-old alcalde or magistrate at Santiago de Cuba named Hernan Cortés. It is Velazquez’s intent for Cortés to secure a foothold in this new territory to await the…